I wanted to write this quite some time ago, and I wanted to write it in French, but being on a QWERTY keyboard has delayed me, so I am now writing it in English, and might publish it in French later on.
For some months now, the web is under attack of predatory US companies. Those companies have decided to jeopardize the privacy of people, to exploit the content created by people to feed genAI tools and to force people into their « sanitize » version of the web (meaning a web compatible with their techno-fascist politics). As users, it is essential that we fight against that. And even if late stage capitalism has taken away power from users (most money isn’t in the hand of people, but in the hand of a few billionaires, which therefore can decide which products stay and which products go), we still have the capacity to decide where our data is going and, maybe more importantly, where our attention is going. More than our money, techno-fascists want our attention, because through that attention, they can continue to control what we think and who we vote for, a necessity to keep up the appearance of democracy. All this to say that it is our responsibility to exit the US digital landscape (and I would extend that to any AI-first / surveillance-enabling digital landscape).
I’ve done a few things in that direction, and I am far from perfect, but I wanted to put up the steps I made to help those who would want do the same. The list below explains which technology I replaced by which, and it isn’t in any particular order.
1. Web browser
For years, the first thing I would be doing when getting a new computer would be to install Google Chrome. I had been using other browsers before (Netscape, Firefox, Opera), but for many years, Chrome was significantly better than any other. And as the main gate to the web, having a good experience with my browser has been essential. It has also become one of the most important piece of software to take out of the US digital landscape, as so much data is going through it.
Luckily, it is now very easy to stop using Google Chrome. There are a number of browser that have been getting better than Chrome, but to me, the best option is definitely Vivaldi. Vivaldi is an European browser (based in Norway and Iceland), with a focus on privacy and a very clean but also highly customizable user experience. To be honest, it took me no time to get used to it. It has a downside though: it is based on Chromium, an open-source project developed by Google, with some ties to Google embedded in it.
If you look for non-Chromium alternative, it becomes quite difficult to find really usable options. Firefox is the first one, of course, but given the Mozilla Foundation is US-based and has taken a hard genAI turn, I wouldn’t trust it. Other alternatives are not yet consumer-facing ready (talking of Ladybird and Servo), but are to be followed closely. I’ve not tested the ungoogled-Chromium browser, though I feel it’s also a very niche power-user alternative.
So in the end, I settled for Vivaldi, and as a first step to get out of Google Chrome, it’s a very easy one, one that you should be doing ASAP
- Cleanliness: 3/5
- Easiness: 5/5
2. Search engine
There is no other piece of the digital landscape more Google than the search engine. Even if Bing (Microsoft) has gotten better with the years, the search landscape is massively dominated by Google Search. It becomes even a bigger share when looking at alternatives which all mostly rely in Google Search Index and Bing Search Index. European alternatives do feel like cosmetic changes on the top of those two, and non-European alternatives are either Chinese or Russian, which aren’t much comfort if you’re looking to escape surveillance and fascism.
I’ll start by giving reasons not to use some of the most common alternatives I have been considering:
- Duck Duck Go: one of the most commonly used alternative. It’s US-based and rely essentially on Bing. It’s also pushing towards genAI a lot.
- Qwant: Emmanuel Macro called Qwant the French Google. Joke aside, the French-based search engine has had a lot of bad press related to bad and/or toxic management, and has been developing and discontinuing of lot of products, showing not much focus. It is still heavily based on Bing, though it is developing its own index in partnership with Ecosia
- Ecosia: also based on Google and Bing, with the perspective of using an European index in partnership with Qwant. It’s based in Germany, way smaller, but decided that as a environmental-friendly company, a good move would be to develop an genAI chatbot based on OpenAI.
- Mojeek: based in UK and using it’s own index, it’s unfortunately not very good, or at least, it’s really not easy to find the relevant information based in its result.
- Brave Search: US-based and even if they claim to be privacy-focused and even if they are using their own index, they are also very much pushing genAI stuffs, and is part of a quite awful company with a knack on crypto-scam.
- Startpage: based in Netherlands, but using Google and Bing search, though they claim to make sure user data aren’t sent to them.
Let’s be clear: using any of those is a improvement. But from my perspective, there isn’t a perfectly good alternative.
What I settled for is to use Mojeek as my default search engine, with the advantage that it offers a direct redirection to other independent search engine in its own result page. So when I don’t find what I need on Mojeek (which happens quite often), I go in 1 click to the Startpage result. I’ll be honest, it took me a bit of time to get used to it. Integration with Google Maps (I’ll come to that later) is what I am missing the most for local search. But I got used to it, and it works 98% of the time. I’ll be revising this, especially if Qwant / Ecosia search index becomes their main source of indexation later on.
- Cleanliness: 3/5
- Easiness : 2/5
3. Mail provider
I remember when Gmail was launched and it offered 1GB of free space. It felt revolutionary and magical. As a result, I have a gmail address for more than 20 years. That email address is EVERYWHERE. I’ve registered to most of my basic digital services with it. Belgian administrations, banks, employers, friends and family have been able to reliably reach me through it. It also means that through it, Google has potentially access to a deep intimate knowledge of my life. I want that to change.
The barrier to change email isn’t technological. Email is based on rather simple standard (SMTP) and needs a rather light infrastructure, which is why there are a ton of providers that can offer you an email service. The barrier is historical: it takes a lot of effort to modify your reference email address, so much so that I don’t think it’s something that can be done in one go.
So to avoid having to do it again, I’ve opted to set my email address on my own domain. I’ve chosen OVH as my domain name registrar (the person or company registering that a specific domain belongs to a specific person) and web hosting provider (the company providing services to put your own things on the internet). It’s a French company that has been reliable for me (even when they face catastrophic damage to one of their server warehouse) and has a rather good reputation. This means that I pay a bit of money every year to be able to use the web domain yannlebout.be.
OVH also provides mail services, but they are rather basic and not that easy to use. I wanted to convenience of Gmail and therefore opted for a cloud solution. I went for Proton. The swiss-based company has had some bad rap because its CEO tweeted a support to a Trump decision. Even if it was inflated, I still have my doubt of the company ethics, especially as they have started to promote their own genAI chatbot. However, it has the huge advantage of proposing a « productivity » suite similar to what Google is offering, plus a VPN. I gave it a try, mostly knowing that if I want to move away from them, I would keep my email address.
EDIT 12/06/2026
Proton has been involved in the sponsoring of a far-right activist. When called-out, their communication was quite bad, and ended-up on something like « we made a mistake, we will review our process on how we sponsor content creator » which was ready to let go. Then it’s CEO published this appaling explanation basically arguing that there is nothing that can be done, that they will continue to sponsor far-right people,. As such, it means that Proton shouldn’t be chosen as your email provider. I’ll update this article further when I will have moved to another provider (probably Infomaniak)
Now configuring your domain to use with an external provider can be a bit intimidating. Most providers offer good guidance, but it is technical by nature. I do believe that it’s worth it, as it allows you not to be tied to any provider later on. Even if your registrar ends-up being problematic, you can always move your domain from one registrar to another. Another issue that could arise is that it costs money, both for the domain name and for the ability to use it with Proton. I believe this is totally worth it.
This looks too complicated to you or you want to keep it free? You can always opt for a another email provider based in Europe and privacy focused. If you have your doubt about Proton, Infomaniak has a very good reputation. I am myself very happy with Proton, so I have no issue recommending it.
- Cleanliness: 5/5
- Easiness: 1/5
4. Digital productivity suite (text, table, password manager, file transfer)
As you have probably guessed, moving my mail to Proton came with the opportunity to move my whole productivity suite there. Google Drive, Docs and Sheets are good, but nothing special, and Proton offers me the same functionality. I was already paying Google to have enough space on the cloud for the some of the files I was keeping there, so I’ve just transferred that costs to Proton. Free option also exist, with the same type of limitations.
An important bit was to move all my password from the built-in password manager in Chrome to Proton Pass, and it was quite fast and easy. Proton Pass also integrates seamlessly 2-factor authentication tokens directly in the Pass app (for paying customers), and I really like it.
There is no reason to continue to use Google productivity suite. Free and paying alternatives exist, and perform as well as the Google one.
- Cleanliness: 5/5
- Easiness: 5/5
I guess for most people, this is the core of their use of digital products online. I continue my list below with some more specific elements that some or many people use, but not all.
5. Music streaming
I am quite proud of this one. I love music, and sure, Spotify is Swedish. But his pro-Trump CEO and first shareholder, who invests in AI weapons companies makes it an unethical company. Moreover, the whole streaming business model is exploitative. There are better options (such as Qobuz, which is French, seems to pay better and is trying to take step against genAI music), but none that are completely ethical. Moreover, those streaming companies do modify our relationship to music in particular, and art in general, in a way that I find unhealthy.
For those different reasons, I wanted to get away from them. But I wanted to keep the convenience of being able to access a large selection of music easily from my computers and phones. As I am the owner or a large collection of music accumulated those 25 last years, on physical and digital support, I decided to set-up my own streaming service, but was quite intimidated by the technicality of it.
Luckily I stumbled upon the service of Pikapods. This is a very user-friendly service that allows you to use hosted open-source software in a few clicks and for what seems to be a fair pricing. One of the open-source software that Pikapods proposes is Navidrome, which is an open-source music streaming software developped by a Canadian and recommended as one of the best option to set-up a service like this one. In a few clicks, my service was set-up and ready to use.
If the set-up was easy, what takes time is to put all your music track on your own music server, properly tagged. I used fre:ac as tool to convert files and rip CD, MusicBrainz Picard for tagging, WinSCP as file manager to upload the tagged files to my server, all those being open source softwares. Nothing was too complicated, but being comfortable tinkering with different pieces of software and understanding FTP helps. As client, I am using the web client on my computer trying different options on mobile (Navic, Symphonium,…)
I end-up with what I wanted: a large music library available when I want. What I’ve lost is the ability to access any music at any moment (though if I really need to listen to a piece of music, a lot is on Bandcamp or – unfortunately – Youtube). I do believe most people are listening to a very limited number of tracks / artists, and they would be better off buying the tracks they like instead of streaming them 50 times.
- Cleanliness: 5/5
- Easiness: 1/5
6. Prototyping tool
I sometimes need to use prototyping tool to work. The go-to tool is Figma. It has been a good tool for quite some years, but is now heavily investing in genAI stuffs, on top of being a US-based company (with strong investment in Israel). While looking into the history of Blender (another open-source tool my partner is using), I stumbled-upon Penpot, an open-source Spanish alternative to Figma. I am not a designer, and therefore use a very small percentage of feature a product such as Figma proposes. I found that Penpot was more than enough for what I wanted to do, with very limited adaptation. Easy win!
- Cleanliness: 5/5
- Easiness: 4/5
7. DNS resolver
To make it simple, a DNS resolver is a service that route an URL to to computer where the resources to which the URL lead is hosted. It is one of the basic layer of the Internet. As such, a lot of data is transitioning through those services. There are public DNS that can be used to avoid giving-up sensitive information (or exposing yourself to censorship). I’ve set-up DNS4EU on some of my computer and phones. It is rather easy, and well explained on their website. They also offer some filtering built-in in the DNS, which I wouldn’t recommend.
- Cleanliness: 5/5
- Easiness : 4/5
8. Social media
This is a difficult one… Social media is by definition a platform, which means that when I quit it, I lose the connections there without the possibility to rebuild them in another place. They are walled gardens, which is why it’s very difficult to get rid of them.
It’s particularly the case for Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) which is something on which my whole generation is present, and still vastly used to communicate. I took some step to get away from Meta by deleting my Facebook account, but currently stays on Whatsapp and kept an inactive Instagram account without the app to be able to access tome information that are unfortunately published only there by some local businesses. I have other messaging app (Telegram, which is also very dubious; and Signal), but I am dependent of my contacts switching to them. I am not really proud of this, but this is what I can afford in the context of having immigrated and depending on digital communication tools to stay in touch with friends and family.
Beside that, I had quit Twitter / X quite some time ago (about when Musk became CEO) and have been active on the « ATmosphere » since. The « ATmosphere » is a decentralized network developed by Bluesky and relying on a kind-of open-source protocol that has the ambition to become a standard. Bluesky itself comes with the same issues than any other US-based social network, and would be only marginally better than X.com. But you can join the ATmosphere using other providers. I chose to move to Blacksky, which is the most complete alternative provider to the ATmosphere. Though dedicated to the black community, they offer alternative handles that can be used by non-black people. I am still not completely happy with it, as Blacksky is also US-based, and I might migrate to Eurosky which aims at creating an European social media ecosystem.
I should mention that even more decentralized alternatives exist, such as the Fediverse, but they are even more marginal and therefore don’t really replace the dominant platforms.
The same goes for community-based platforms such as Reddit or Discord. You can’t just decide to stop using those without losing the content and people still using it.
All in all, that whole social media is messy and there is no real alternative to existing US services. The best we can do is using them less.
- Cleanliness: 2/5
- Easiness: 1/5
As conclusion I want to say that there is still much I should be doing, but the two next items are particularly on my list
Operating Systems
Our computers and phones fundamental softwares are all US-based. All my devices are either on Windows (Microsoft) or Android. If the core of Android is open-source, most Android that are used are the Google proprietary version of it. With those devices being constantly connected, having them running on American OS is basically jeopardizing a lot of the effort made above.
On the computer-side, I feel like the incredible progress in accessibility made by Linux communities makes it possible to move towards it (thinking about Linux Mint in particular). A few games might not run anymore, and it might be a bit tricky to get my NVIDIA graphic card running, but it’s worth trying. I do feel that a lot of preparation and adaptation would be necessary, and as our PC are used by the whole family, I want everyone being comfortable doing the move.
On the phone-side, unfortunately, both Apple and Google have made a very effective effort to make their platform walled garden. I am currently relying a lot on banking apps and digital identity apps that would be the first to be difficult to run on open mobile OS. GrapheneOS seems like a very promising option, but being so reliant on my phone and uncomfortable with this whole process, it will have to wait until the time I have a new phone so that I can use my current one to test it risk-free
Google Maps
Google Maps is an incredible products, probably the last great product of Google. In one application, you get access to a journey planner, a GPS, a travel guide with ratings and a local directory (and probably the best source for restaurants menu), all this in a very polished user interface. No product can offer the same currently.
It’s also an incredibly invasive application, which is collecting all your movements. Any person being remotely privacy-conscious should stop using Google Maps. I am, and I have not (yet).
The thing is that even if alternatives for routing exist (based on OpenStreetMap or others such as Here), they can’t offer the same data quality than Google Maps, and the same range of functionality. Getting rid of Google Maps goes through accepting that things will get a bit less easy. It’s not what you want when you move to another country and lose all your local knowledge and contact. This is nevertheless a goal for myself during next year. I do feel like Here Maps offer a quite polished experience for routing, and I just need to find a good app to access OpenStreetMaps data, and hope more and more people move to it, so that the data gets better.
That’s all for now, I hope to bring updates as soon as I make more progress on the topic.